What justice looks like for our fisheries

Saturday

May 20, 2017 at 2:00 AMMay 22, 2017 at 9:20 AM

By John Pappalardo

The high-profile arrest of Carlos Rafael followed by his guilty plea to lying about the fish he caught and sold is final proof of the existence of a devastating rogue wave that has battered the historic New England fishery.

Rafael tainted an entire industry, making fools of hardworking, honest fishermen who have been playing by the rules under increasingly difficult circumstances.

It’s entirely possible that his illegal reporting distorted the scientific analysis that powered our fish population assessments. By mislabeling depleted species and selling them as abundant species, Rafael kept scientists from making honest estimates of how much fish actually was in the water. Public policy was built on bad assumptions, which in turn created double damage — lowering limits on the amount of fish honest fishermen were allowed to bring to shore while at the same time stealing the resource we are all committed to rebuilding.

Now comes the crucial question: What does justice look like in the aftermath of an admitted economic and environmental crime of this magnitude?

First, Carlos Rafael should be banned from commercial fishing, forever.

Second, the fishing quota he owns (pounds of fish allowed to be landed each year) should be redistributed to all of the fishermen in our region, because they are the ones most damaged by his criminal enterprise.

Third, additional revenue on his assets, whether from outright confiscation and sale, or fines and penalties, should be used to fund major improvements in how our fisheries are monitored and studied. This is the only way to assure that the same thing won’t keep happening over and over again, to protect honest fishermen and to revive fish populations.

While most fishermen are hardworking and law-abiding, making a living in a dangerous but gratifying way, we need to acknowledge that Rafael is not the only person to game the system (though he’s likely the worst). This is the moment to learn from what he was able to pull off and shut the door on anyone who aims to steal public resources from the ocean, other fishermen and the American public.

By Rafael’s own estimation, his fleet is worth between $75 million and $100 million. In the plea bargain proposed in return for his guilty plea, only 20 percent of his holdings (13 vessels and permits worth about $15 million) would be confiscated. This would leave him with $60 million or more of assets.

That can’t be right. All of his fishing assets should be forfeited. The $15 million defined in the plea bargain should be to make amends directly to fishermen, distributing rights to catch fish worth millions of dollars to the struggling fleet across New England. Rafael’s actions did not damage just people in New Bedford, where at least the port accrued jobs processing the fish Rafael’s boats illegally landed. His crimes damaged groundfish fishermen from Maine to New York.

A lifetime ban means he must sell his remaining $60 million of ill-begotten assets, and a big chunk of those proceeds should be forfeited to the government and used to repair the fishery he damaged. That means improved at-sea and dockside monitoring, as well as funding for more and better fish counts done through fisherman-scientist partnerships, to give us better data and drive better management decisions.

Fishery managers know we need to improve monitoring and accountability. They’ve fashioned something called Multispecies Amendment 23 to do so. As managers learn more about what Rafael did and how he did it, they will have more information to build better oversight and protections — and he should pay for that, too, so what he did can never be repeated.

Already, some of the best captains in our fleet are turning to video cameras to record every trip, and every catch. Revenue recouped from Rafael’s criminal activities could be used to expand this fledgling electronic monitoring program.

This is how we can turn disaster into benefit, and help rebuild fish populations vital for our future.

New England fishermen have borne the brunt of a well-organized, cynical crime. We cannot make them whole, but we have a rare opportunity to offer compensation, return Rafael’s assets to the remaining groundfishermen across New England, end opportunities large and small to keep on cheating, and give honest people a fair fighting chance to fish for a living.

That’s what justice looks like now. And that should be the real legacy of Carlos Rafael.

— John Pappalardo is chief executive officer of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance in Chatham.

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